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    Ocala
    Ocala
    Ocala
    Ebook202 pages51 minutes

    Ocala

    By Kevin M McCarthy and Ernest Jernigan

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    About this ebook

    Nearly five centuries have passed since Ponce de Leon claimed for the king of Spain the area that now contains Ocala, the seat of Marion County in North Central Florida. Located midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, Ocala was incorporated in 1885, when it was home to just 803 inhabitants, and has grown steadily since that time. At the turn of the twentieth century, the city covered four square miles and had a population of 3,380, making Ocala the seventh largest town in Florida. From its Native American heritage, which includes important episodes in the life of Seminole leader Osceola, to its natural beauty featured in such places as the Ocala National Forest and the world-famous Silver Springs, Ocala has had a rich and fascinating past. Widely known today as champion thoroughbred horse country, Ocala and its environs also boast neighborhoods of well-preserved Victorian homes and other historic structures, a thriving business community, and a diverse populace that is dedicated to the constant improvement of this singular city. In 1995, Ocala was honored with the designation of "All America City" by the National Civic League. Paying tribute to this one-of-a-kind city, its residents--both past and present--and the story it has to tell, this volume of more than 200 vintage images showcases Ocala's rich historical legacy and the men and women who made it all possible.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439629062
    Ocala
    Author

    Kevin M McCarthy

    Kevin McCarthy is professor emeritus and a distinguished alumni professor of Florida studies and English at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he taught for 33 years. He has written many books for Pineapple Press.

    Read more from Kevin M Mc Carthy

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      Book preview

      Ocala - Kevin M McCarthy

      Jernigan.

      INTRODUCTION

      Ocala, the biggest city of Marion County and its county seat, takes its name from an Indian name meaning water’s edge, probably referring to the location of an ancient settlement near Ocklawaha River. It was the early site of Fort King, the 1830s fort where the Second Seminole War was precipitated when Indians ambushed and killed the local federal officer in 1835. Ocala was also a popular destination for visitors traveling the Ocklawaha River from Jacksonville via the St. Johns River in the 19th century. In the 1890s, when phosphate was discovered nearby, local entrepreneurs promoted the town’s central position in Florida as a reason for making it the state capital, but Tallahassee retained that honor. The phosphate in the soil enriched it to such an extent that many horse farms were established in the area, adding much to the economic well being of Ocala.

      Ocala has been particularly important in the politics of the state, beginning with its hosting of the national convention of Farmers Alliance in 1890. Additionally, the city and surrounding area have given the state three governors and several lieutenant governors, as well as a number of African-American leaders such as former Secretary of the State of Florida Jesse J. McCrary Jr.

      In 1995, the city was named an All-America City, a rare honor that few cities achieve. Those who live in Ocala were probably not too surprised at such an honor. The city, after all, has much going for it. Set midway between the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Gulf of Mexico on the west, the town is provided with some protection from hurricanes, but its residents also enjoy easy access to boating, fishing, and swimming on both coasts. Ocala’s latitude is such that it experiences a change of seasons but does not have the high heat of South Florida or the cold weather of the North. Nearby Silver and Juniper Springs offer welcome facilities for recreational swimming, canoeing, camping, and boating. This, as well as Ocala’s proximity to many lakes, rivers, parks, and the Ocala National Forest (350,000 acres that make up the southernmost national forest in the continental United States) gives its residents no excuse to stay indoors. These attractions, the community’s good educational facilities (especially Central Florida Community College), and the closeness of the University of Florida have enticed thousands of new residents to the area. Finally, Ocala’s cross-section of people from various backgrounds, races, cultures, and languages give the city a cosmopolitan atmosphere that may surprise newcomers.

      Today, Ocala boasts about 50,000 residents, with another 50,000 living just outside the city limits; Marion County has about 250,000. The city’s prospects for the future are promising because of enlightened leadership, a forward-thinking newspaper, and a concern on the part of the residents to plan for the steady growth that will surely come in the 21st century.

      One

      BEFORE 1900

      Thousands of years ago, when the ice ages caused many of the world’s lands to be separated because much of the earth’s water was frozen in glaciers, hunters crossed the Bering Strait from Asia to America in search of large animals such as the mastodon and mammoth. Around 12,000 years ago, some of those people reached Florida. (Dover Pictorial Archive Series.)

      Early Native Americans used weapons like these to hunt animals. Archaeologists have found such weapons in rivers and springs throughout Florida. When the large animals died out, Native Americans had to adapt to fishing and farming to survive. (Florida State Archives)

      The Timucua Indians (pronounced ti MOO kwa) were one of the largest groups of Native Americans in Florida (including the present-day Marion County) in the 16th century, when the Spanish first arrived. Remains of the bones of Native Americans, probably the Timucua, from between the years 500 B.C. and A.D. 1565 have been found in the Ocala National Forest. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1996 requires that Native American remains, funeral, and sacred objects must be given back to descendants for reburial. (Florida State Archives.)

      Two important historians of this Ocala area, Eloise Robinson Ott and Louis Hickman Chazal, pointed out that the slogan for the county, The Kingdom of the Sun, goes back to the Timucua practice of worshiping the sun with ceremonial offerings. The picture above shows the Timucua making a canoe by burning the inside of a large log. (Florida State Archives.)

      The Timucua included smaller divisions such as the Ocale and Potano in what is now Marion County. Several hundred villages were in the Timucua territory, and some of those villages had as many as 200 houses. Those houses were usually round, wooden huts covered with

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